Fish and Fireworks

July 24, 2001

Rise and Shine!

Got up at 6:00 am (ugh!) to catch the subway to the fish market: I'd
been informed by my next-door neighbors that it was not something I'd
want to miss.

Getting off the train near a large temple, I wandered my way down the
street until I saw the first signs of the market: lots of little stalls
selling bowls of fish and rice. But that was just on the
surface. Just off the main street were stall after stall of...
stuff.

Naturally, fish and other seafood dominated. I saw squid, live
clams, eels, octopus: just about anything that came out of the ocean was
somewhere in there! There were some even stranger things, up to
and including what looked like a stuffed polar bear.

Since I hadn't had breakfast yet, I attempted to get something to
eat. I must have done something wrong, though: the guy at the
stall refused to sell me what looked like some sort of seafood on a
stick. (Miya told me later that except for the stalls on the
street, most of what's sold in the fish market goes wholesale, so maybe
I just didn't want enough. :-)

I could have stayed there for hours, but the morning was getting
warm, and I had to go back to meet with Miya. Time for some actual
work. Bleah.

Enter the Real World...

Most of the day was spent with my Japanese colleagues, working on
various development issues. Trust me, you don't want to know about
it. (Lots of stuff about compilation settings, processing algorithms...
ZZZzzz... (thunk).)

(It worked out well.)

Fireworks!

One thing's for sure: Miya is a fantastic host. After work, he took
me on a drive around town, where we found a fireworks display going
on! The show ended about 8:20 and we had arrived around 8:00 pm, just
in time for the big finale.

Finding an alley in which to park his car, we clambered up a hill to get
a better view. The fireworks were being launched from barges on the
river. We could see everything from our vantage point, and even feel
the heat at times. Wonderful!

The display was part of a local festival, so we parked (illegally, as it
turned out) a little ways away and wandered in.